to think most people my age have a sibling?

[Goblin74]

32 years old.

I'm lying here putting my 9 month old to bed and I started thinking about how he'll likely be an only child. It led me to think about how common it is today to have only one child and I started thinking about my own childhood (I'm an only child) and the more I thought about it, the more I realised all my friends growing up had siblings. I was fortunate enough to have lots of friends growing up and I'm going through every one of them realising they all had at least one brother or sister.
The kids on my street for example: 11 houses all with kids. I was the ONLY only child.
Primary school: about 8 of us, two only children (and the only other one I can think of)
High school: again a group of 6 (totally different to primary). I was the only only child.
Today: I have 7 close friends. All have siblings.

Was it normal in the late 80s/90s to just have more than one child? Or have I just somehow managed to avoid being friends with only children?

If you're in my age range, do you have brothers and sisters?

I'm not an only child, but I often let new acquaintances think I am as my brother is dead. You never know what is going on behind the scenes.
While yes, I'd say more people have (or had) a sibling than were an only child, I wouldnt say it was unusual to be an only.

I can't think of a single person I knew growing up who didn't have siblings... Most were from 2 or 3 child families, some bigger. In my DC's classes, there's one only child in each, rest are mainly 2 child families, and a handful of 3 child families. Most of dc1s class, have siblings in dc2s class, two years apart. This seems "the norm" where I live! Families certainly seem to be getting smaller on the whole, obviously with the exceptions but I don't know of any 4,5,6 child families these days.

I'm 24 and an only child. Nearly all my friends at school were too, apart from one who had a younger sister. They hated each other.

I’m mid 30’s and none of my friends are an only child. I have a sibling, as does DH and all of my cousins have at least one sibling.

My DP and I are both only children, and wont be having children ourselves.

Only children are becoming more common though - parenthood is increasingly unaffordable.

I only knew a handful of only children growing up. I'm 37.

I know lots of families now who have stopped at one. Mostly for financial, health or age reasons

Most of my friends have siblings. I have a sibling as does my DH. Sadly our first daughter passed away and I had a very rough time carrying our second. We decided to remove the option for a sibling when DD was about 2 as I was getting close to an age where I wouldn't want to be pregnant anyway and both pregnancies had been very rough. So whilst she isn't our only child she will grow up as an only.

I'm 35, and I've only ever known one person in my life to be an only child.

She has a large friendship group, with very close girl friends, and I believe she sees her friends to be as close as siblings.

All my friends are early to mid 30s and I only know one only child.

Of the friends I know who do have children (and I don't know many), they all have multiples except one. So not that different for me, but I know a lot more 'people who I'm aware of their sibling status' than I do 'people with children for a representative sample'!

31 & I have 2 brothers. However, I went to school with several “only” children. About to have my 2nd baby, so clearly in the camp that thinks having a sibling is great!

I didn’t meet anyone who was an only child until I was an adult. (Catholic family and school though, so while I didn’t know anyone with zero siblings, I knew someone with 21.)
In my daughter’s class two thirds of the kids are onlies and staying that way (parents volunteered the information, I didn’t ask).

I’m 32 and an only child. Only one other girl in my class at secondary school was an only child. The only other only child I know is my cousin who also had only one child.
Difference for me is that I have many cousins close in age who I am close to. I think my DD will be an only but my 3 close cousins have 7 children between them and we are all close, so DD has no shortage of playmates!

I'm 32 and an only child but only because my dad left when I was a baby. In my group of 5 friends at school there was another only child and the others all had one sibling. Most people I know as an adult seem to have siblings. I didn't miss it when I was younger but I do wish I had a sibling now

I’m 32, and I have two siblings. My husband is 35 with three other siblings.

We have cousins who are also in their early 30s, and they all have siblings. All of my friends have siblings. I don’t know anyone my age who is an only child.

I can't remember where I read it, but apparently a woman at forty is most likely to have two children, then zero, then 1, 3, 4 etc. So yes having siblings is more common. That doesn't mean that it's the best setup though, just the most common.

I'm almost 32 and have no siblings. DH is also almost 32 and has 1 sibling (quite a bit older than him). We have 2 DC and don't want any more, but I didn't want DD to be an only child like me, so we had DS.

Three of our friends who are the same age have 2, 1 and 0 siblings respectively. The friend with 2 siblings has 1 child, the friend with 1 sibling has no children, and the only child has 2 children.

Apparently one child families are now/soon >50% of all families in the UK?

I think it depends on the previous generation. If I look at my friend's families it seems to go

Generation 1 Several children
Generation 2 One child
Generation 3 2 or more children

or

Generation 1 One child
Generation 2 2+ children
Generation 3 1 or 2 children
as each generation wants to avoid what they didn't like

Late 40s, there was a boy in my French class that was an only child plus one of my good friends (her parents had fertility issues) so yes it was unusual in my generation where I lived.

I've never thought about but, when I do, only one in my immediate group of 9 is an only. Three of those have gone to have just one child, two have three, replicating their childhoods and the rest of us have replicating our own childhoods.

Mid 30s here and I have a younger sibling. Growing up I only knew one girl who was an only child. Everyone else in school or in our estate had siblings. For what it's worth I have nothing to do with my sibling , weve never liked each other and my mother only had them so I wouldn't be lonely 🙄🙄

I'm late 30s and an only child.

I wasn't the only only child around, but I was about the only one with two parents. Only children were rare and tended to live in one-parent families.

Interesting!
Im of the same generation as you, I have one sibling, my primary friends all had siblings, my secondary friends I can think of one who was an only, the rest had siblings. And of those I know now, all have siblings.

Just done a quick poll of my FB friends over the age of 30 as to whether they have children or not (not siblings or not). Results are in:

0 children = 10 friends
1 child = 11 friends
2 children = 37 friends
3 children = 17 friends
4 children = 2 friends
5 children = 1 friend

I'm an 80s baby and in Ireland...I met my first only child when I started secondary school...she almost had unicorn status it was such a novelty
I know a few onlys now and from 25 down it gets very common.
I think as a pp said there is no best way, some people get on great with their siblings some people never stop plotting their murder and everything in between...has to be the same for onlys some love it some hate it and most just think of it as normal life.